Issues with the infamous apush textbook

By Ireoluwa Adesola, 2026

Published 11/29/2023

The APUSH textbook has a few issues. While released in 2018, it still uses some outdated terms and ideas. As students in APUSH we are expected to evaluate and learn from sources to answer questions, based on the classwork. But some of our sources seem outdated at times. For example, the textbook’s way of describing Native Americans. 

The textbook explicitly states that calling Native Americans Indians is an incorrect term used by Columbus since he was convinced he had arrived at his planned destination, “the Indies”, or Asia. After this statement, the book uses this incorrect term for the rest of this book. I find an issue with this because of how they portray themselves as hypocritical for calling out Columbus for the same mistake they continually make. 

It also intermittently includes some opinion in the text, describing people as stupid and uneducated. The textbook also describes others like anarchists as smart and brave and other words of praise. I find an issue with this as it takes away from the main idea of the text and influences students to see the people of the past in the same way. 

In conclusion, while still considerably educational and significant to our history and society and world today. The book could be greatly improved by removing these problems from within its text.